The long-awaited confrontation between the Longeaxe and Alyard Corbray, which proves to be constrained by courtesy and the presence of two highborn women. Sparring bouts break out twixt Corbray and the heir to the Crag, while the Longaxe and Brynden Tully spar.

A, first in many days, sunny morning finds ser Willard Ryger training his men in the yard. Many nobles come and go, stay and just pass. And the yard echoes with not only the clangor of swords clashing, but also with words of wisdom and of wit, and of love, with friendships and admirations, and conflicts. With a flurry of events small and grand and the heir to Willow Wood somehow entangled in each of them.

On the first day of the Queen's Tournament of Love, a Joust of Love was held. After much pageantry and prowess by the knights of the Seven Kingdoms, and considerable wagering by their ladies, a number of knights (and a squire) distinguish themselves. In the end, Ser Almer Connington is named champion by the noble ladies present after a surprising act of chivalry in the lists, and makes an unexpected choice for his Queen of Love and Beauty.

While Ser Almer Connington and the injured squire, Ammon Massey, stand their vigil over the bodies of Doryssa Massey and Mellony Fossoway, the Warden of Crackclaw Point, his wife and several of his officers come to pay their respects.